There’s a new Little Free Library on a corner down the way from my house. It recently was dedicated to the memory of the owner’s mother. “Sara’s Library” also has recently acquired a small bench on which readers are invited to rest as they peruse the library’s offerings. Sara’s family had minimal tools and carpentry […]
Reading for me is like hanging round the dessert table at a big buffet. Searching, sampling, selecting, and of course, periodically gorging to satisfy my powerful sweet tooth. Similarly, my book and reading choices are often guided by self-questions like: Where to begin? When I have I read enough? Am I ready to walk away […]
I am currently involved with a family literacy program.* It meets for six weeks, during which time families and their grade-school children come to a nearby school’s well-stocked library where we spend two hours together eating healthy food, reading good books and discussing how those books pertain to our very own lives. There is no “teaching” […]
There seem to be two competing agendas operating in lots of schools with tight budgets. Literacy learning is a top funding priority in our school. The librarian costs too much, so we should just hire a clerk or use the library as a study hall. Pick one. We can’t promote both of these. The research […]
Every few months it seems there is news that focuses our attention on the perennially pitiful job schools do in improving reading. The proposed solutions are predictably pitiful as well. Schools that have been doing A should check out B, and schools that have been doing B might want to try C. The options for school-wide […]
TED is an acronym for an organization focused on Technology, Entertainment and Design* that seeks to share recent developments and big ideas in these three areas of rapid growth. TED is most commonly encountered in the short phrase, TED Talks, which are 18-minute short lectures/presentations by clearly brilliant people on topics that a large number of folks who […]
Public schools in the U.S. on a traditional schedule are closing for the summer, with buses making their final run full of chattering children, excited to be finished with the school game for a few months. But unfortunately, this also is often the first day of the Summer Slide, the path taken by way too […]
Recently the International Reading Association (ILA) has promoted its 10-point “bill” of Children’s Rights to Read. I’ve written about this before during ILA’s push earlier this year to get everyone on the planet to endorse these rights. I bring this up again, because I’m a believer that with every right comes some form of responsibility. For example, the right to vote carries with it the responsibility […]
Dear Parents, Siblings and Family Members, Reading a book for a younger child? Excellent. Asking your kiddo to retell the story? Sure, if that’s fun. Quizzing the little one on particulars of a story or informational text? Uhhhhh, No. Each of the above might be seen as a way to support a child’s developing literacy […]
Each year the International Literacy Association (previously known as the International Reading Association) publishes three Choices Reading Lists which identify the choicest books published within the last year as selected by three groups: children, teens and professionals. The Choices Reading Lists offer titles and brief teaser-descriptions of the books that are surefire winners for those three populations. As […]
